En+ Group Executive Chairman, Lord Barker, has joined all other members of the ETC in signing a public report calling on governments to allocate economic stimulus spending wisely and invest in the economy of the future. Economic stimulus packages established by governments around the world will be vital to sustain economic activities, jobs and livelihoods over the next few years as the world emerges from the COVID-19 crisis. The members of the ETC believe that clean energy, low-carbon and digital solutions will be fundamental pillars of a better economy, and that to achieve this, governments should put seven key priorities at the heart of economic stimulus packages.
These have been defined by the ETC as:
- Unleash massive investment in renewable power systems
- Boost the construction sector via green buildings and green infrastructure
- Support the automotive sector while pursuing clean air
- Make the second wave of government support to businesses conditional to climate commitments
- Provide targeted support to innovative low-carbon activities
- Accelerate the transition of the fossil fuels industry
- Don’t let carbon pricing and regulations spiral down
Further detail on each of these priorities can be found in the full public reports available on ETC’s website - http://www.energy-transitions.org/content/7-Priorities-for-Global-Recovery
By combining measures of the sort outlined above, tailored to specific national circumstances, the ETC believes that governments can both support economic recovery from today’s crisis and underpin the energy transition required to avoid a climate crisis in the future.
En+ Group joined the ETC in July 2019 as part of its strategy to lead a global shift towards low-carbon materials. As the world’s largest producer of low-carbon aluminium the Company is committed to playing a genuine leadership role in driving the industry to help meet carbon reduction targets.
As we start to think about rebuilding our economies coming out of crisis, we are at pivotal point, where the decisions of governments for the next few years could have a huge impact on our ability to turn back the tide on climate change. With the ETC, En+ is calling on governments to build back green. This means investing in more sustainable long-term projects that will help us on our way to meeting the Paris Climate Targets.
We at En+ believe that these targets will only be achievable if governments consider the entire production chain. They must recognise the importance of low-carbon materials to accelerate progress by significantly reducing the climate impact of new infrastructure from the very source.”ESG is central to our business model and the new board and management are committed to it. If you leave here today with one message, it is this: not the enormity of the challenge of realising net zero but the sheer scale of the opportunity that this represents for our business.
En+ Group Executive Chairman
Lord Barker, Executive Chairman of En+ Group, said:
About the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC)
The ETC is a diverse coalition of global leaders from across the energy landscape: energy producers, energy-intensive industries, equipment suppliers, investors, non-profit organizations and academics from the developed and developing world. We aim at accelerating the transition to low-carbon energy systems providing prosperity to all, by using our unique voice and our original research to inform policymakers and private sector decision-makers.
In 2018, the ETC published the report “Mission Possible: Reaching net-zero carbon emissions from harder-to-abate sectors by mid-century”, which demonstrated that it is technically and economically feasible to bring carbon emissions from heavy industry and heavy-duty transport down to zero globally by mid-century, without relying significantly on offsets from the land use sector.
